I recently sent a letter to Sen. Susan Collins, urging her to resist efforts by her party to tamper with Medicare. She is one of a handful of Senate Republicans who could serve as a firewall against harmful changes to a program that 306,000 Maine seniors and people with disabilities rely upon.
The majority in Congress has proposed to privatize Medicare, raise the eligibility age from 65 to 67 and repeal the Affordable Care Act, which made important improvements to Medicare. These actions will reduce health care coverage and increase out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries already struggling to make ends meet.
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The first is simply the use of the term “entitlements.” While this has a clear meaning to policy wonks, it is likely that most viewers won’t immediately know that “entitlements” means the Social Security and Medicare their parents receive. It’s a lot easier for politicians to talk about cutting wasteful “entitlements” than taking away seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.
via Truth Out.
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Republican Senators Say Now’s the Time to Cut Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.
While this has a clear meaning to policy wonks, it is likely that most viewers won’t immediately know that “entitlements” means the Social Security and Medicare their parents receive. It’s a lot easier for politicians to talk about cutting wasteful “entitlements” than taking away seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.
Dean Baker via Truth Out.
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Will America’s Seniors Vote Against Their Own Self-Interests…Again?
When a candidate promises to “save these programs for future generations” by raising the retirement age, raising the Medicare eligibility age, privatizing Social Security, changing the COLA formula and means-testing Social Security while exempting near retirees what they’re actually saying is: “We know seniors vote so we’ll protect them now and slash future benefits for their children and grandchildren instead.
via Entitled to Know.
Deficit hawks likely will pressure the White House to accept cuts in Social Security and Medicare for future retirees, protecting those already retired or close to it. Their political goal will be to defang public opposition, since younger workers tend not to focus much on retirement when it is several decades away.
But that approach is not going to work. Retirees and their advocacy groups will fiercely resist cutting benefits down the road, because they understand the critical importance of Social Security and Medicare benefits. They also care about the future retirement of their own children. And numerous polls show that the public opposes benefit cuts - a view that is common across all demographic groups and political affiliations.
via Reuters.
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- New Poll Shows Majorities Do Not Support GOP Proposals for Social Security and Medicare.
- In the poll of likely voters, 79% favor increasing Social Security
benefits — and funding that increase by having wealthy Americans pay
the same rate into Social Security as everyone else. Seventy-seven
percent oppose raising the Social Security retirement age to 69, and a
whopping 93% favor allowing Medicare to negotiate to bring down the
price of prescription drugs.
Whether America is facing a “retirement crisis” in which seniors are making do with shrinking financial resources has been widely debated. But here’s a telling metric: Seniors are making a larger share of bankruptcy filings.
That’s the finding of a new paper by academic researchers affiliated with the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which periodically samples personal bankruptcy filings from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. “Older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy,” they write, “and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher.”
via Los Angeles Times.
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Social Security will be more important
than ever for retirees.
We are asking Congress to BOOST Social Security benefits for all working Americans. Click here to sign our petition.
…Here we are, eleven years later, facing another existential threat to our health and retirement income security. But this time the threat is worse, the peril more palpable. The millions of workers, retirees, the disabled and their families who depend on Social Security and Medicare have cause for grave concern.
More on this issue here.
To maximize profits, private insurers in Medicare will continue to try
to enroll younger, healthier, low-cost enrollees leaving sicker, older
and higher-cost seniors in traditional Medicare, creating what is known
in the healthcare industry as a “death spiral” making traditional
Medicare too costly to sustain.
via Reflector.
Embedded in the Affordable Care Act were a raft of pilot projects and provisions to make medical care for retirees less expensive. The drafters of the act wanted to make doctors more accountable, share in cost savings and cut hospital re-admissions. The Act even cracked down on fraud and abuse in Medicare.
Millions of current and future retirees were no doubt hoping that President Trump would use last night’s speech to Congress to reaffirm his promises not to touch Social Security and Medicare. Instead, the President ducked and covered. He did not even utter the words “Social Security” or “Medicare” in his entire hour-long address. As for Medicaid – which millions of American seniors rely upon for skilled nursing care – the President only touched on it once, with a veiled reference to converting guaranteed benefits into block grants, which would hurt beneficiaries.
via Entitled to Know.
Though Medicare is an essential part of retirement, pre-retirees continue to have misconceptions on how the federal program works.
Close to 90 percent of older Americans either enrolled in Medicare or plan to sign up for coverage, according to a recent survey from Nationwide Retirement Institute.
The insurer’s research arm worked with The Harris Poll to survey 1,007 adults over age 50 with a household income of at least $150,000.
More than 7 out of 10 participants said that they wish they better understood Medicare coverage.
via CNBC.
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